On August 13, the main union at Chile's Escondida copper mine, the world's largest, announced it had reached an agreement with BHP billiton to abandon a strike.
BHP owns 57.5 per cent of the mine, with Rio tinto and the Japanese consortium owning the rest.
Among other things, the deal includes a $23,000 bonus for each union member, as well as nearly $4,000 in overtime pay, local media reported.
The union, which has more than 2,000 members, had demanded a one-time bonus equivalent to 1 percent of the company's shareholder dividend for a pay rise in recognition of their continued work to keep the mine afloat during the pandemic, as well as career development plans and educational benefits for their children. When the miners rejected the union's demands, they voted on July 31 to send out a strike notice, giving them five days to respond or go on strike. A deal was finally reached after Chilean officials intervened and negotiations were delayed several times.
BHP had said on Tuesday that the talks had ended "with the final elements and closing conditions of a collective agreement", but that the deal had not yet been accepted by the unions. On Friday, the union announced that it had voted "almost unanimously" to ratify a new collective agreement proposed by management and to abandon the strike. Details of the agreement are confidential, but BHP confirmed in a statement that the terms would remain in effect for 36 months.
In 2017, there was a 44-day strike at the mine, the longest in Chilean mining history, that cost BHP $740 million and cut Chile's GDP by 1.3 percent. Chile is the world's largest copper producer, producing 5.6 million tons a year, or 28% of global production, with most of it sold to China, the world's largest consumer. Mining accounts for 10-15% of Chile's GDP and half of its exports.
With the outbreak of the disease and the high price of copper, Chilean miners have been on strike one after another. Unions at Chile's Codelco and Andina copper mines and JX Nippon's Caserones copper mines said they would stop using the tools this week after talks broke down over their respective agreements.
